Much of the problem is about perspective, putting things in scale and balance. What if domestic news outlets continually fed American readers headlines like: "Bloody Week on U.S. Highways: Some 700 Killed," or "More Than 900 Americans Die Weekly from Obesity-Related Diseases"? Both of these headlines might be true statistically, but do they really represent accurate pictures of the situations? What if you combined all of the negatives to be found in the state of Texas and used them as an indicator of the quality of life for all Texans? Imagine the headlines: "Anti-law Enforcement Elements Spread Robbery, Rape and Murder through Texas Cities." For all intents and purposes, this statement is true for any day of any year in any state. True — yes, accurate — yes, but in context with the greater good taking place — no! After a year or two of headlines like these, more than a few folks back in Texas and the rest of the U.S. probably would be ready to jump off of a building and end it all. So, imagine being an American in Iraq right now.

(.....)

What about the media's portrayal of the enemy? Why do these ruthless murderers, kidnappers and thieves get a pass when it comes to their actions? What did the the media show or tell us about Margaret Hassoon, the director of C.A.R.E. in Iraq and an Iraqi citizen, who was kidnapped, brutally tortured and left disemboweled on a street in Fallujah? Did anyone in the press show these images over and over to emphasize the moral failings of the enemy as they did with the soldiers at Abu Ghuraib? Did anyone show the world how this enemy had huge stockpiles of weapons in schools and mosques, or how he used these protected places as sanctuaries for planning and fighting in Fallujah and the rest of Iraq? Are people of the world getting the complete story? The answer again is no! What the world got instead were repeated images of a battle-weary Marine who made a quick decision to use lethal force and who immediately was tried in the world press. Was this one act really illustrative of the overall action in Fallujah? No, but the Marine video clip was shown an average of four times each hour on just about every major TV news channel for a week. This is how the world views our efforts over here and stories like this without a counter continually serve as propaganda victories for the enemy. Al Jazeera isn't showing the film of the C.A.R.E. worker, but is showing the clip of the Marine. Earlier this year, the Iraqi government banned Al Jazeera from the country for its inaccurate reporting. Wonder where they get their information now? Well, if you go to the Internet, you'll find a web link from the Al Jazeera home page to CNN's home page. Very interesting.

Gosh, CNN and Al Jazeera link to each other? I can't say that I'm very surprised, since CNN has no problem sucking the dick of a terrorist supporting genocidal dictator if it'll let them get the news. Ethics have never been a big part of CNN's toolbox, so it's no surprise to me that they've become the terrorist network of choice.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Hello all. This is the Raging_Mrs. My father forwarded this to me. I feel that it is overly appropriate considering the state of current world affairs.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing that is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better [people] than himself."

-- John Stewart Mill

This link has some background on the author and comments applying to this quote.

Now, I respectfully submit that I have less lifetime to work with than that ancient geezer august gentleman, but I can probably find a few people that are a bit different. I can't say that it was easy to pick either list.

My top ten people who fucked this country up in my lifetime-

#1 - Jimmy Carter - most of the Middle East issues that we are now dealing with started under his Administration. It was his weak leadership that allowed a lot of crap to get out of control. The people who followed his leadership on this issue are too many to be counted individually.

#2 - Al Sharpton - Jesse Jackson might be the Race-baiting poverty pimp who was MLK's associate, but it was Al Sharpton in my eyes who made being a poverty hustler into an established profession.

#3 - Bill Clinton - Let's see, allowing Osama bin Laden to slip through his fingers not once but TWICE is more than enough to put him on this list, but his incompitant handling of this country, his butchering of the military, allowing the Army to be his little social experiment, not responding to the terrorist attacks against this country overseas, and forcing little girls and boys to learn just what a blow-job is before their parents really wanted them to know are all just a small part of how this man fucked up my country. I debated putting him up at #1, but I figured that 'ol Jimmah started the spineless Democrat revolution that we see the fruit of today.

#4 - George Bush Sr. - I hate to add him to this list, but he was the first president to start making cuts in the military that Reagan had built. He was also the first to start raising taxes, and his kowtowing to the "international community" left Saddam in power after we had the perfect opportunity to take him out. Too many fuck-ups, most of which we are now dealing withthe results of. On the list he goes.

#5 - Aaron Spelling - TV just wouldn't be the same without him. Which makes it a shame that we're not without him.

#6 - Al Gore - One word - Florida. If it hadn't been for Gore trying to steal the election with mandated "recounts" in hand selected countied with highly Democratic populations and carefully "supervised" vote picking, this country wouldn't be in the electoral mess that we're in. Although it was probably a matter of time before the Donks tried the same hijinks, it was Gore who made robbing elections a public part of the Democrat's election strategy.

#7 - Sarah Brady - There are a lot of different groups out there trying to take the 2nd Amendment and wipe their ass with it, but only one group has an actual name attached to it. Brady made gun grabbing a household part of politics.

#8 - Janet Reno - Waco. Ruby Ridge. Elian Gonzales. While the Left howls about John Ashcroft and his policies, it was Reno who pretty much shat on the Constitution with the full blessing of Bill Clinton's administration.

#9 - Jesse Jackson - Al Sharpton might be higher on the list, but Jesse Jackson has done more to hurt racial relations in this country than almost anybody else. You can lump people like Julian Bond and Kwese Mfume with Jackson if you like.

#10 - This is a toss-up between the founder of DU and the people who frequent it. I can't figure out what's worse, a group of anti-American assholes who have nothing better to do than come up with conspieracy theories and badmouth the very country that makes their freedom possible, or the person responsible for giving that group a place to hang out.

Now then, for the top ten people who improved this country.

#1 - Ronald Reagan - Won the Cold War. Period. Like A-Man, I can remember having to do "desk drills" in case of a nuclear attack. I remember how I felt when the Berlin Wall came down, and when the USSR fell apart. It call comes down to the actions of one man - Reagan. On the flip side, this is also why so many liberals hate him. Let's not forget that it was his tax cuts that put this country on more than a decade of economic growth.

#2 - Acidman has Jonah Salk as his #2, but as it has to be people in my lifetime, I'll go with his #3, Bill Gates, and for the same reasons. I remember programing in BASIC back before DOS had been invented, and I'm sure that many of my readers are nodding their heads going "Yep". Gates made is possible for anyone to get a computer and get online. Even people like myself who download Mozilla's Firefox browser are still running Windows in order to do it.

#3 - Newt Gingrich - Led the Republican Revolution back in 1992-1996, and had the good sense to resign rather than drag the Republicans through a process that would have given the Donks a perfect chance to lie, slander, attack, and destroy what they had accomplished. Welfare reform is one example of what he pushed through congress.

#4 - Colin Powell - I don't think he was all that great as SecState, but he was the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs that wasn't white, and by all accounts was a hell of a soldier. He made his rank and his life through hard work and superior effort, in an age where he could have coasted and taken what the establishment would give him. When the race baiters and poverty pimps tried to recruit him as their spokesman, he politely told them to go to hell.

#5 - Thomas Sowell - Never has one man with so great an intellect been so slandered and maligned by the Left for of all things... his color. Sowell was probably the first real columnist I started reading when he wrote for Forbes Magazine. The man is a flat out genius, and has probably done more to advance clear thinking and honest debate in this country than anyone else who ever picked up a pen. If you want to learn how to argue and debate, learn Sowell's layout and tactics.

#6 - Rush Limbaugh - I'm sure that a lot of you are now going "Oh, bullshit!" but it was Rush who brought about the conservative talk radio movement. Until he came on the air and started saying the very things that everybody else wanted to say, conservatives didn't have jack shit for a voice in the national media. Even Seattle has two conservative radio stations now, but it was Rush Limbaugh who broke the wall first. I can take him or leave him at this point, but he made conservative radio possible. And it wasn't until I lived in Seattle that I finally realized that he wasn't exaggerating when he described liberals and their politics.

#7 - Rupert Merdoch. In the same vein as Rush, it was Merdoch who gave conservatives a place to get information that wasn't so biased that the news ticker was even tilted to the left. Now that CNN and MSNBC are losing viewers to Fox News, the rest of the media establishment is maybe kinda sorta starting to wake up, although CBS is proof to the contrary.

#8 - Jim Henson - The Muppets. The Dark Crystal. 'Nuff said. I can remember the one and only episode of the Muppets where Gonzo actually got to finish the trumpet fanfair at the end. My dad remembers watching Howdie Doodie when he was a kid. My generation remembers The Muppet Show.

#9 - George W. Bush - "But I can hear you! And the people who did this are gonna hear from ALL of us real soon!" A few months later, the Taliban was wetting their turbans, and the phrase "Bush Doctrine" was known nationwide. Much of what he's done in office can be debated, but making it clear to terrorists and the nations who support them that the USA will no longer tolerate their presence was the first time in over two decades that the USA had done anything about terrorism in general.

#10 - I'm gonna toss this one out as a debatable entry - John F. Kerry. For thirty years, this country had been silent about Viet Nam and the people who fought there. It wasn't until John F. Kerry pushed his way to the Democratic forefront that the veterans who had suffered through his slander, and the slander of all the Left, managed to find their voice and speak out. There were a lot of issues cleared up for some people, and the Viet Nam war is no longer some taboo topic, not to be touched for fear of re-awakening some long buried pain. The Viet Nam vets made it known that the Left had lied about them for thirty years, and they weren't going to take it anymore. Kerry is a disgusting, opportunistic worm, but his actions brought about the open discussion of Viet Nam, which was overdue and much needed.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

The hearings were historic, mainly because it’s not that often that you get to see seven or eight Democrats slander and abuse a successful black woman. Not since they stopped wearing sheets. But then Condi isn’t black or female. She’s conservative, so NOW and the NAACP revoked her credentials. From now on, whenever she fills out a government form, she has to list herself as a white male, and in certain states she could also be forced to buy golf clubs.

I don’t care. Let the Democrats have their fun. Because for the next four years, we’re going to make them eat their own vomit. FOUR MORE YEARS RIGHT DOWN YOUR THROAT, BITCHES! We'll show you what "trickle down" really means. Not that I am in any way mean-spirited or a bad sport.

Maybe later, I’ll hate on fat Mikey Moore for preaching gun banning while employing an armed bodyguard. Why does Mikey need an armed man to protect him from knives and bullets? I thought his fat was supposed to do that. Let’s pray that one day Mikey goes swimming off Norway or Japan and gets himself “harvested” for “research” purposes.

I had to wonder.... since we had Ted "Swimmer" Kennedy and Bobby "Sheets" Byrd both hurling more lies and slander at Dr. Rice than any one person can realisticly deal with, can we take the Left's canard about how the Right is racist and just beat them with it? I mean, when a star of the Left gets up and goes on a drunken rambling slanderfest against a highly successful black woman, I think that's one meme we can just bury right now.

Since my parents have been rather generous to both my wife and myself in the past few months, I figured that I would do what I could to help them out around the house while I'm here. I mean, they live in the country. There's ALWAYS something to do, just to keep things running on an even keel.

Like graveling the private road, from the main road to the hay barn.

Ug.

Luckily, the gravel place dumps it into your truck for you. But once you get home, all the shoveling, raking, moving, hauling and other assorted work is up to you. And yes, since we don't own any heavy machinery I did it all by hand. Mom now has a nicely graveled road, and I have two arms that feel like they're about to fall off.

Oh well. Tomorrow I get to clear dead brush and other items on the fuel ladder away from the barn. And I can't say that I'm going to get fat while I'm here. Gotta love the country life!

Which U.S. Senator wasn't just a member of the KKK but was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head?

Which U.S. Senator said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values."

Which U.S. Senator wrote the following, three years after he claims to have ended his ties with the KKK: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

Which U.S. Senator also wrote that he would never fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

Golly.

That's a tough one.

~~Roll out the Kleagle,
~~Roll out the dodd'ring old Fool
~~Roll out the Kleagle
~~Roll out the West 'ginny Tool...

"Of course, [the Iraqi resistance] is riddled with opportunism, local rivalry, demagoguery, and criminality. But if we were to only support pristine movements, then no resistance will be worthy of our purity."

Sunday, January 23, 2005

"Anybody notice they seated him behind Rumsfeld, who seemed to make it a point to wear a really big hat?"

After seeing this picture:

Thanks again, Brett. My sides are still hurting.

Update: A couple of readers pointed out that the fellow wearing the hat is not Don Rumsfeld. It does look like him though. Even if the guy wore the hat by chance, the idea of Flipper having to look over and around a huge cowboy hat to be reminded of the fact that he's a loser is still a knee slapper. Title edited accordingly.

Those who supported the liberation of Iraq may enjoy these advertisements airing on Iraqi television to promote the coming elections. It does the heart good to know that our deligence has given millions of people, previously the subjects of brutal oppression, the freedom to vote in free and open elections.

Clip #493: An Iraqi Elections Broadcast
Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai) - 1/12/2005 - 00:00:51
US Army convoy leaves a desert. A little boy watches them go. He is joined by his friends. They play soccer.
Written on screen: They move on, and we stay.
www.futureiraq.org

Clip #478: Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi's Elections Broadcast
Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai) - 1/9/2005 - 00:00:54
Alawi: Hello, My name is Iyad Allawi, I am an Iraqi and a physician. When we physicians graduate, we take an oath to treat people and ease their pain. Therefore, we cannot stand by and watch the oppression and tyranny that have hurt Iraq. I have resisted this tyranny for over thirty years and I've been a target of attempted assassinations. I have returned to my country to take part in its rebuilding. Therefore, we have assembled a party to run in the elections and called it "The Iraqi List". It will create a new tomorrow for a strong Iraq.
Announcer: Vote for the Iraqi party and for Dr. Iyad Alawi for a strong leadership and a secure homeland!

Clip #453: An Iraqi Election Commercial
Al-Arabiya (Dubai), 01/02/05
An old man rounding a corner into an alleyway looks up and sees young, masked militants facing him down. A couple joins the old man. Slowly, more and more people join the old man.
Voiceover: On January 30, we meet our destiny and our duty. We are not alone, and we are not afraid. Our strength is in our unity; together we will work and together prevail.
Those joining the man now outnumber the militants. He nods and they move forward. The militants run away.
Written on screen: Don't worry about Iraq. We are its people. We will allow no one to deprive us of our rights. For the building of Iraq: Peace, freedom and democracy. The heroes of Iraq.

Clip #301: An Iraqi Election Commercial
Al-Iraqiya TV (Iraq) - 10/21/2004 - 00:00:49
br> Your vote is the future in order to restore Iraq's health, I will participate in the elections. Because we have a duty to build Iraq, I will participate in the elections. In order to bring back Iraq's color, I will participate in the elections. This land must flourish. This is Iraq! Your vote is the future!

Clip #324: Iraqi Police Support Broadcast
Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai) - 11/3/2004 - 00:00:45
Following is an Iraqi Police-Supported Broadcast
Today there are more than 100,000 policemen and others employed by the Iraqi security forces. Next year they will double in number, and will be better trained and prepared to face Iraq's enemies and the forces of darkness and crime. We are concerned about Iraq. We are its people. With your support, Iraq will become stronger. The heroes of Iraq.

Clip #333: Broadcast in Support of Iraqi Unity
Abu Dhabi TV - 11/8/2004 - 00:00:49
Broadcast in support of Iraqi unity
"Iraq If we are divided, we will not rule. Iraq – one homeland, one future."

And all you brain dead leftist losers can writhe in your well deserved dishonor and obsolescence for trying to deny these people that which you so selfishly and boorishly indulge and abuse. Scum......